The Web Marketing Innovation Challenge:

Design, Write and Develop the Legal Marketing Web Site of the Near Future

This is a (very slightly edited) summary of an innovation proposal I presented to my business. Understand, we make our living in the capricious Internet marketing arena, so it’s hard to fathom that a discussion of the importance of mobile would be considered particularly “innovative” these days. But in 2008, I guess it was.

I believe the “best” innovation — in terms of return on investment and likelihood of success — is one in which existing assets and technology are leveraged in new and exiting ways. Mobile search marketing often involves an enhancement of existing services, allowing clients to reach new markets and a greater number of searchers who need immediate satisfaction and are not in a position to conduct extensive comparison-shopping.

As mobile search is a rapidly developing arena, it would behoove Web design and Internet marketing companies to investigate ways of integrating new functionalities as they become available and widespread throughout the marketplace.

Current attorney and law firm Web sites do not capture the guy whose just been pulled over with an ounce of marijuana in his glove compartment. This guy knows he need a lawyer — and quickly. In the near future, he will hopefully know that if he visits a mobile legal directory on his iPhone, he can speak to or video chat with an attorney who will meet him at the police station or jail.

My team and I chose to create, in effect, a single page site with many features that can help connect Web searchers with our “customer”, a small but very aggressive criminal defense practice that understands the need to respond immediately when a potential or existing client is arrested for drunk driving, domestic assault or drug charges.

Search Visibility

If experience is any reliable guide, the rules that govern search are bound to change. While megasites and (to a lesser extent) multiple sites currently have the distinct advantage in search engine visibility, we predict that smaller, much more highly focused sites may represent an efficient way of helping our clients be found by searchers in a new paradigm in which specific location — whether indexed by zip code or through GPS coordinates — is more and more a deciding factor in search engine rankings.

New Features: Immediacy and Connectivity

Within the standard site of the near future, features such as an interactive calendar, twitter or live chat will provide a greater sense of immediate accessibility and personal connection. The legal marketing Web site is a tool for potential and existing clients to get the answers and immediate representation they need, rather than providing generalized information not specific to their unique circumstances. This is a tool for connecting lawyers with clients who need representation NOW.

Benefits: Minimal Investment to Expand Services in a Growing Marketplace

Mobile legal marketing Web sites will make use of existing and developing technology (2G and 3G mobile search) and leverage current legal directory infrastructure and client-base.  We know from client feedback that legal directory placement services have proven invaluable time and again to attorneys who in a previous era may have been erroneously called “ambulance chasers” or “jailhouse lawyers”.

The mobile legal directory of the future will also be a service to the end-user, helping the person who needs immediate legal help find it any time, anywhere.

Risks: Global Thermonuclear War or Alien Invasion

That is a joke. Unless there is a serious disruption in the marketplace or the introduction of a truly transformative new search technology, the risks of developing and implementing mobile legal directories and mobile Web sites are minimal.

Technology and Software

The technology and software that we chose to use in our test site is a combination of .php and JavaScript.  In order to retain accessibility and valid web code we have incorporated numerous open source functions.  These functions can be modified to meet specific needs and improved upon in a short amount of development time.  Currently the functional portions of the prototype are utilizing the JavaScript.  Future functionality of the site would utilize .php and .mysql database technology.

Conclusion

Bells and whistles don’t sell Web sites or directory services. At least not for long. We have complete faith that the designers, developers and new product researchers will continue to stay on top of trends in both the marketplace and technology, but few can afford to devote all their technical and creative expertise to creating the ultimate “cool”, “hip” and “exciting” Web site. Nor, we believe, should we wish to be.

We approached the idea of innovation from a marketing standpoint. We believe that innovation is a process in which ideas for new or improved products or services are developed and commercialized in the marketplace. While the ultimate “cool”, “hip” and “exciting” Web site may certainly be creative, is it marketable? Can we really make cutting edge design and technology our goal?

Or should we look at ways to grow our proven strengths in new directions? Those of us in the legal marketing business are uniquely positioned to take a leading role in the rapidly growing mobile search market by thinking beyond .mobi programming and into new and truly innovative ways of marketing in a mobile environment.

© Michael Owen Hill, 2008

Comments, late 2012:

It’s so funny to realize that I was one of only a few folks (in our business, at least) talking about mobile way back when. Of course, now we’re all focused on responsive design, which is a welcome development I frankly didn’t foresee. I think the best part is the assertion that, barring some truly catastrophic development, the rise of mobile was inevitable.